nook on the Web – First Impressions

Today the latest content patch for the B&N nook rolled out and it’s made a fairly impressive showing. I played around with it for a while earlier and found little to complain about.

The most important point is, of course, performance. The screen refresh isn’t any faster, but navigating the device has been sped up considerably. There is nearly no discernible delay moving from one menu to the next anymore. Adding onto this the fact that the update is supposed to fix the freezing of nook units(couldn’t say since mine never froze in the first place), and I think many people are going to like the upgrade for this alone.

The most widely touted feature of this update was the web browser. Now, as you would expect from the first release of a browser for a device that was never really an optimal sort of avenue for that sort of thing in the first place, there are some bugs. First, page navigation is a bit slow. Both moving from page to page and simply scrolling from one part of the page to the next. I love that I can check my email easily through the device. In fact, that was the first thing I did, just to make sure I could. It causes problems when you try to do anything involving a pop-up or new tab though. Just bumps you out to the main menu. Personally I’d rather just get a message saying “No, go do something else instead.” Anyway, it’s still a nice addition. With the color on the touchscreen, the web isn’t nearly as bland as it could be. It’s a small window to the full color spectrum of the web, but it makes a big difference.

Finally, we have the games. Why did B&N add games? No idea. Not that they’re bad. I mean, they’re really not. Heck, the sodoku is one of the most pleasant versions to play that I’ve ever found, and I hate sodoku. I just don’t exactly see the point just now. Maybe when downloadable games demonstrate the potential better somehow?

I’d say nook owners should be very pleased for a bit. This is a major improvement in the device. I still feel the lack somewhat, since the keyboard is a little less sensitive and harder to use than my Kindle‘s, but it isn’t too bad. This eReader’s definitely going to get a bit more use than it has been for a while now though, I can assure you.